Casino Would Hurt Tysons Plan, Job Growth On Silver Line: Supervisor

MCLEAN, VA — A Fairfax County supervisor disagreed with the Northern Virginia AFL-CIO’s contention that building a casino, performance space and convention center in Tysons would create 5,000 new jobs.

“Since we put in place the Tysons Plan, we have seen extraordinary job growth in Tysons,” Jimmy Bierman (D-Dranesville) said at a community forum Sunday on the casino proposal. “We have seen mixed-use development in Tysons. We have seen huge companies come and relocate in Tysons.”

Not only would a casino undermine the goals of the Tysons Comprehensive Plan, according to Bierman, it would more likely make the area less attractive to the business community.

“There are lots of opportunities for us to continue job growth in Tysons, and I’ll continue to support that type of development,” Bierman said. “If some of those companies decide they don’t actually want to be located in Tysons anymore, that’s going to hurt us.”

Bierman spoke at No Fairfax Casino’s community forum at McLean High School. About 200 people showed up to hear the latest news about impending legislation that would pave the way for a casino to be built in Tysons.

Patch first broke the news in September 2023 that Comstock Holding Companies was seeking to build a casino somewhere on the Silver Line in Fairfax County. The company is behind the mixed-use development at the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station. Since then, a groundswell of opposition has grown in and around Tysons, which is where Comstock hopes to build its casino.

“Let’s be clear, when the senators and delegates who represent a community, along with their constituents, are in strong opposition to a proposal in their own community, that does matter,” said State Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Herndon), who was the keynote speaker at Sunday’s forum.

As a member of the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, Boysko was one of the 13 senators who voted last February to hold over Sen. Dave Marsden’s (D-Burke) casino referendum bill to the 2025 legislative session.

If passed, the bill would give the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors the authority to add a referendum to a future ballot, so voters can decide if they want a casino built in Tysons.

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“In every other instance of a casino being granted in a community, it has been the community that has come forward and said, ‘This is what our people want,’ whether it’s the city of Richmond, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Danville or Bristol,” Boysko said. “They had their leaders come down and make a formal request to the general assembly to ask for the authority to have a casino.”

Marsden has already indicated that he plans to reintroduce the bill when the legislative session begins on Jan. 10, provided the Fairfax County board gives its approval.

“I would like to note that the Board of Supervisors actually has taken an extremely firm position on this,” said Bierman. He then read a letter Fairfax County Board Chair Jeff McKay sent to the general assembly in January outlining his opposition to the legislation as it was currently written.

Under the current tax revenue sharing formula, the state would receive 70 percent of the tax revenue generated by a casino, leaving 30 percent for the county, according to McKay’s letter.

“If you are opposed to Fairfax County just being the ATM for the rest of the state, this is a bad deal for you, and that’s something that the Board of Supervisors has been extremely clear on,” Bierman said.

Beyond that, he said a casino could derail potential growth for Tysons and the rest of the Silver Line corridor, which Bierman, Boysko and other speakers described as the economic engine of Fairfax County.

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To advance this effort, Comstock, its employees and allies have contributed more than $1.2 million to the campaigns of state and local elected officials and signed agreements with Thompson Hospitality, which runs the matchbox and Big Buns restaurants, and the Northern Virginia AFL-CIO.

Sunday’s forum came less than a week after the newly formed Fairfax County Jobs Coalition, which represents workers from more than 25 unions, hosted a rally outside the Fairfax County Government Center.

“We have union agreements that will provide more than 5,000 good jobs for local residents, especially immigrants, workers of color,” said Northern Virginia AFL-CIO president Virginia Diamond. “If you work in a union hotel, union convention center, you know you’re going to be making good wages where you only need one job to live in Fairfax County. You can afford to live here with health care and pensions.”

Read all of Patch’s reporting on the effort to build a casino on Metro’s Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

Although no formal plans have been released, Comstock seeks to build a 4 million-square-foot entertainment district in Tysons that would include a high-end hotel with gaming floor, convention center, concert venue, restaurants, retail, and workforce housing. In addition, 200,000 square feet of the district would be dedicated to a casino.

Since no formal plans have been released to the public or filed with the county, Bierman characterized the developer’s intentions as more of a press release than an actual plan.

“I don’t oppose 5,000 new jobs,” he said. “I don’t oppose 5,000 union jobs. Let’s build it with union labor. Let’s have hotels with union labor. I’m all for that. Do not tell me that this casino is a good idea for working people, because it’s not. It’s not a good idea.”

Aside from Boysko and Bierman, other elected officials who came to the forum and had previously come out in opposition to the casino referendum included Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill); Dels. Karen Keyes-Gamarra (D-Reston), Irene Shin (D-Herndon) Holly Siebold (D-Vienna), and Rip Sullivan (D-Great Falls); and State Sen. Saddam Salim (D-37th). Also in attendance were Clayton Medford, McKay’s chief of staff, and Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert.